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Ohio State University enrolled a record number of out-of-state and international freshmen this
year — so many, in fact, that the school has hit targets it hadn’t expected to reach until 2015,
officials told campus trustees yesterday.

A growing number of schools across the nation have been turning to out-of-state students to make
up for state cuts in funding to higher education. But OSU officials said they have been motivated
by the need to make up for a drop in Ohio’s population of high-school-age children — and not out of
a desire to make more money.

After a decade-long upward trend, Ohio’s high-school graduating classes have dropped
dramatically since 2009. It is expected to bottom out in 2014-15, when there is projected to be 10 p
ercent fewer high-school graduates than there were in 2008-09.

“Sure, out-of-state students pay more money, but that’s not been our primary driver,” said Dolan
Evanovich, OSU’s vice president for strategic enrollment planning. This school year, Ohio students
pay $10,036 in tuition and fees at Ohio State; non-Ohio students pay $25,445, plus $1,000 more if
they are from another country, thanks to a new fee introduced this fall.

“For us, it’s about quality and luring the best and brightest kids from Ohio and across the
country so they can graduate and, hopefully, find jobs in the area, becoming a brain gain for the
state,” Evanovich said. He and others conceded, however, that the money is a nice benefit.

Miami University officials recently said they want to increase their out-of-state mix of
students. “If you go to a 50 percent in out-of-state or international students paying higher
tuition, you have generated a whole lot more revenue,” David Keitges, Miami’s director of
international education, told the student newspaper.

Of Ohio State’s 7,186 freshmen this year, 1,758 are from states other than Ohio. That’s about a
17 percent increase over last year, Evanovich told trustees at an academic-affairs committee
meeting yesterday. Overall, out-of-state students make up 24 percent of the total incoming student
body, which Ohio State had set as an enrollment goal for three years from now, he said.

Evanovich told trustees that he would like to try to hold that figure fairly steady because Ohio
State has a strong tradition of serving local students. But OSU President E. Gordon Gee suggested
that, given the unique times, he might want to shoot a little higher: about 30 percent of all
freshmen being from outside of Ohio.

Even more dramatic, the percentage of international freshmen jumped by 56 percent to 590,
Evanovich said. Although foreign students still remain a relatively small proportion of the class:
roughly 8 percent. That, too, was the target for 2015.

As has been the case, an overwhelming majority of the international students came from China, he
said. The continuing challenge for Ohio State will be to get a greater mix of students from a wider
variety of countries so that it’s a truly global experience.

To try to expand its reach, the university has created “global gateways,” which essentially are
mini-embassies to introduce Ohio State to the world. There already are gateways in China and India.
OSU is now working on opening a third in Brazil and is considering sites in Turkey, sub-Saharan
Africa and Europe.

The university also is looking for ways to attract more minority and low-income students from
Ohio who would be the first in their families to go to college.

Next summer, OSU plans to open pilot centers in Cleveland and Cincinnati. They would be designed
to help local high-school students and their families with basic facts, such as how to fill out a
college application or federal financial-aid form, with the hope that some would go to Ohio State.
If things go well, OSU hopes to open centers throughout the state, Evanovich said.